Last SundayXI Cinema Short Story Literary Prize was awarded to El Don, a work by Gonzalo Calcedo Juanes, an outstanding author from Palencia settled in Cantabria, who could not get to Huesca capital city to receive the diploma due to personal reasons. Calcedo apologized in written and spoken, through Oscar Sipán’s words, who received the trophy on his behalf. According to the writer, it is an honour to be awarded and, as a seventh art lover since youth, he appreciates the celebration of the event since it allows him ‘to blend part of the cinema he dreamt of shooting, with the literature he did end up writing’.
Oscar Sipán recogió el trofeo en nombre del ganador de la mano de Ruben Moreno (Fundación Anselmo Pié Sopena)
El Don is the awarded work of XI Cinema Short Story Literary Prize called by Huesca International Film Festival, with the sponsorship of Fundación Anselmo Pié Sopena, the cooperation of Writers Association Aveletra and Huesca Bookstore Province Association. Its author, Palencia’s writer based in Pedreña (Cantabria) Gonzalo Calcedo Juanes, could not get to the capital city of Huesca due to family reasons but in a statement he thanked the award received on his behalf by Oscar Sipán. The event took place at the Book Fair and, once awarded, Pilar Barrio from Huesca was in charge of reading the short story to the attendees.
The jury appointed by Aveletra, consisting of José Martín-Retortillo, Eduardo Martínez, Javier Sánchez, Hermi Dionis and Irma Torrijos, unanimously proclaimed the short story worthy of this distinction because of ‘the recreation of childhood world, recalling neatly sequenced memories without losing at any time sight of the plot, by means of adding family and audiovisual elements, by creating a knowing and recognizable atmosphere that moves readers’. Caldedo’s work has beaten 286 works nominated to the final award, endowed with 800 € cash prize. The subject matter of these works could focus on any field of cinema, they had to be unpublished, original, written in Spanish and extend to a page maximum. Any author could submit regardless of age but only one work for entrant was allowed.
Gonzalo Calcedo Juanes (Palencia, 1961), settled in Cantabria He is considered one of the most distinguished short story writers in our country. Numerous awards support his career, prominent among them are the three NH (Best unpublished short story book, Best one author short story and 2012 Best short story book), the Alfonso Grosso Award and the José Hierro Award among many others. Some of his works have been published in short narrative anthologies like Los cuentos que cuentan (Anagrama, 1998), by Juan Antonio Masoliver Ródenas and Fernando Valls.
